Decades of Dollars (DoD) was the name of a

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

-only lottery game; it began as a multi-state game in January 2011. Georgia and Kentucky joined Virginia in launching DoD; Arkansas joined in May 2011. (DoD replaced '' Win for Life'' in Kentucky; WFL ended in 2014 as a Virginia-only game.) DoD became a Virginia-only game in October 2014 when the other three states joined the ill-fated

Monopoly Millionaires' Club Monopoly Millionaires' Club (MMC) was a series of 16 scratchcard games that differed by its participating lotteries; its players could become eligible to be flown to Las Vegas to take part in an episode of the ''Monopoly Millionaires′ Club'' ...

drawing game. DoD held its final drawing on April 30, 2015; Virginia replaced it with the multi-state

Cash4Life Cash4Life is an American multi-jurisdictional lottery drawing game; as of April 2021, it is offered by ten state lotteries, and is drawn nightly. Ticket sales began on June 13, 2014, in New York and New Jersey; the first drawing took place thre ...

, becoming its fourth member, but non-

contiguous Contiguity or contiguous may refer to: *Contiguous data storage, in computer science *Contiguity (probability theory) *Contiguity (psychology) *Contiguous distribution of species, in biogeography *Geographic contiguity of territorial land *Contigu ...

with its other three states. Decades of Dollars was drawn Monday and Thursday nights. DoD winners had a choice of 30 annual payments of $250,000 each (minus withholdings) or a lump sum of $4,000,000. Each Decades of Dollars game cost $2; players chose 6 numbers from 1 through 47. DoD prize structure: *Match 2 of 6: free DoD play or $2; see below° *Match 3 of 6: $10 cash *Match 4 of 6: $100 cash *Match 5 of 6: $10,000 cash *Match 6 of 6: $250,000 per year in 30 installments or $4,000,000 cash °Kentucky and Virginia players received a DoD play; Arkansas and Georgia winners won $2. Unexpectedly, none of the game's first 112 drawings produced a top-prize winner (of either payment option.) Finally, for the March 5, 2012 drawing, a ticket sold in Georgia matched all six numbers. Arkansas never produced a top prize in DoD. *''Decades of Dollars'' top-prize winners: **2011 (none) **2012 (7 to date): ***March 5:

Evans, Georgia Evans is a census-designated place (CDP) in Columbia County, Georgia, United States. It is a suburb of Augusta and is part of the Augusta metropolitan area. The population was 29,011 at the 2010 census, up from 17,727 at the 2000 census. Evans ...

***March 8:

Smyrna, Georgia Smyrna is a city in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. It is located northwest of Atlanta, and is in the inner ring of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. It is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs–Alpharetta MSA, which is included in the Atlant ...

***April 12: Norfolk, Virginia ***April 26: Madisonville, Kentucky ***May 3:

McDonough, Georgia McDonough is a city in Henry County, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Its population was 22,084 at the 2010 census, up from 8,493 in 2000. The city is the county seat of Henry County. The unincorporated com ...

***May 10:

Waynesboro, Virginia Waynesboro (formerly Flack) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is a principal city of the Staunton-Waynesboro Metropolitan Statistical Area. Waynesboro is located in the Shenandoah Valley and is surrounded by Augusta Co ...

***August 16:

Florence, Kentucky Florence is a home rule-class city in Boone County, Kentucky, United States. Florence is the second largest city located in Northern Kentucky, after Covington, and part of the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Area. The population was 31,946 at ...

**2013: (none) **2014: ***October

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

All ''Decades of Dollars'' top-prize winners chose the cash option. Decades of Dollars drawings were conducted by the Georgia Lottery at WSB-TV in Atlanta (which hosts

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drawings); the ball sets and drawing machines moved to Virginia. The first drawing game which linked Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia was '' Lotto South'', which began in 2001 and ended in 2006. That game was replaced by '' Win for Life''; the three states offered ''WFL'' into 2011, when Kentucky dropped it as part of the launch of DoD. Georgia pulled out of ''WFL'' a few months before Virginia discontinued the game.

References

{{U.S. lotteries Economy of the Southeastern United States Lottery games in the United States 2011 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 2011 establishments in Kentucky 2011 establishments in Virginia 2011 establishments in Arkansas